Recognition for Mark Bergstrom, Past President

It is my honor as the First Vice President of WSCA to honor our Immediate Past President Mark Bergstrom. Just the process of gathering comments and insights about Mark reaffirmed my perspective on us as a community of teachers and scholars. You can see those comments here in this word cloud that is in the form of a pine tree in honor of Mark's love for the mountains and environment.

You will notice that the most common term used by you to describe Mark was "FAMILY" Some of those references were to Mark's Presidential address where he reminded us that WSCA is a family - we have our differences but we love and honor each other as members of our family. Some also went out of their way to talk about Mark's relational commitments to his family - particularly his wife. Out of the dozens of messages you submitted, two clearly summarized most of those comments. Let me read those here without attribution to the authors:

1. Mark is a consummate leader-thoughtful, patient, skilled, forward thinking, generous, proactive, and highly ethical. The west is his home, and he embodies the best of WSCA. We are incredibly lucky he was willing to take time out of his life to lead us and keep WSCA strong

2. Mark has always demonstrated passionate commitment to WSCA and encouraged his colleagues to embrace WSCA as an integral part of their professional identities. He has served the organization in multiple capacities and has been a staunch supporter of those who have wanted to serve WSCA in their own ways. Mark takes serving the discipline through WSCA seriously without taking himself too seriously, which makes for enjoyable meetings and conversations about how we can promote our discipline while enjoying who we are, where we are, and what we do.